TURPAN, Xinjiang, March 29 (Xinhua) -- Five people who were seriously injured in an explosion that left 24 dead and five others missing in northwest China have successfully undergone surgery after being transferred to a better equipped hospital.

    The five were taken on Thursday from Turpan, in Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, to a hospital in Urumqi, the regional capital, said Sun Changhua, secretary of the Turpan Prefectural Committee of the Communist Party of China.

    Three were described as being stable and two were still under observation, Sun said.

    The regional government had allocated 1 million yuan (141,000 U.S. dollars) to their treatment, Sun said.

    "The regional government has set up special medical team to provide the best treatment," said Nur Bekri, chairman of Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region.

    The explosion happened at about 7:00 p.m. on Wednesday, when the authorities in Turpan city, 180 km south of Urumqi, were disposing of eight truckloads of fireworks in the Gobi desert, about eight kilometers from the Turpan tollgate on national highway 202.

    A total of 21 people died at the scene and 10 were injured, local government officials said on Friday. One of the injured died on the way to the hospital, and two more died during surgery at Turpan Prefecture People's Hospital.

    A terrorist attack and sabotage have been ruled out as possible causes of the blast, said Sun.